Quarantine Rides

Two sisters and one son (nephew) separated by thousands of miles share a quarantine bike ride.  Fitting in a ride from the plan created by the Jacques DeVore and Roy Wallack authors of Bicycling Maximum Overload for Cyclists breaks social isolation of the heart.   In their plan, twice a week, one should ride what they call a long slow distance (LSD) ride.   But I prefer to call these just plain “LSD rides” as they have a lot in common with the drug LSD.  An LSD ride occurs when you don’t care about what zone your heart rate is in, you don’t sync your cadence to your computer and the only time you care about speed is when you see if you can fly faster down the current decent than you did the last one, all factors allowing your ego to dissolve and allowing you to float freely on the pedals.  As with LSD, whether you have a ‘good trip’ or a ‘bad trip’ is all about the “set and setting” – So quoting Osmond regarding the use of LSD, one is “To fathom hell or soar angelic.”  But in my experience – when it comes to biking on LSD, one rarely finds a setting “to fathom hell.”  The following is supporting evidence that when one is on an LSD ride, it is to soar angelically.

A fitting day to display the love of Traverse City. Hearts are breaking around the country at the official announcement canceling the Traverse City Cherry Festival which was scheduled for July 3-11, 2020. After quarantine, it seems we will all be learning what the word ‘normal’ means. My guess as it will be defined differently than before.

Oh, what a difference. And no, I am not riding with a COVID-19 mask. I am riding with the ‘best invention’ ever—a mask by Seirus – a magnetic buff. Keeps face warm but can quickly uncover mouth when the warmth of your breath gets too much to bear, all while keeping face from getting windburned. And on the bike – if you ride in winter a must-have is bar mitts – so warm you don’t need gloves.  In the winter, I ride with mechanic gloves from Home Depot – even then, I often have to remove them as the bar mitts provide so much warmth.

And the riders approach bridges –

Baby Blues’ favorite “set and setting” is riding muddy trails. Note the beauty of the reflection of a tree in the mud puddle. And a feeble attempt to capture the spray off the front tire as one rides through the puddle. (Only had my phone for pictures, which is not waterproof should it get dropped.) Even though you can’t see the spray coming off the tires, you can get the picture (haha). And like a great psychedelic – riding through puddles allows one to escape the global respiratory pandemic, if only for a moment.

Because there is nothing in life that makes the bluebird in my heart soar like a flower, there is never a trip or ride that the universe does not bestow the blessing of flowers on me.

So three people, thousands of miles apart, “ride to remember, ride to forget and ride to forget to remember,”.  Their hearts beat not measured by a  monitor but measured by beat to the rhythm of their own pedals and the hope that the global pandemic ends soon so people can truly ride together.